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Williams’ Off-Field Antics Exposed

Wild parties were reported at a home formerly rented by Mike Williams.

It seems the behavior of Bucs wide receiver Mike Williams away from the Stadium on Dale Mabry Highway and One Buc Palace is a bit more concerning than previously known.

That’s what Joe can read from a detailed report of Greg Auman and Rick Stroud in today’s Tampa Bay Times. The duo dug through police records, talked to Williams’ neighbors and collected information that made the movie “Animal House” come to real life at Williams’ furnished Tampa rental.

Among the lowlights from the report:

* Stripper pole in the living room.

* Five known 911 calls between June and September 2013, highlighted by a kitchen fire.

* Property damage that eventually cost Williams more than $52,000.

* A massive no-holds barred party on the Friday before a road game at Dallas in 2012, a 16-10 Bucs loss, a throw-down he advertised on his Facebook page. There he claimed he sprang for the costs of flights and accommodations to bring revelers into town.

* Foot traffic at all hours of the night and day, replete with stretch limos.

* Mattresses left on the front lawn.

Joe saw Lovie Smith’s face and tone of voice turn stern yesterday like a disappointed parent when he spoke of the lackluster play of the offensive line and of Williams’ off-field behavior. Of Williams’ general troubles, Lovie flatly stated “We’re just not going to put up with it.”

It’s not to say the Bucs are going to cut Williams tomorrow. But Lovie and general manager Jason Licht have made their feelings known: Their patience will be short with further incidents.

“He has to prove that he shouldn’t make headlines off the field,” Licht said.

Let’s face it. Lovie and Licht did not draft Williams. They did not re-sign Williams. They don’t and, more importantly, won’t tolerate this nonsense much longer.

Given the fact that Licht told Joe Thursday the draft is so deep at wide receiver that guys normally who would be drafted in the first two days of the draft may not go until the third day this spring, well, it may be time for Williams to turn the corner on his hard-partying ways.

Williams lives in the posh gated community of Avila now and, thus far, there are no known hassles with neighbors or cops.

Williams can’t be like Freeman, and let the off field sheeeit RUIN their talent/production. Freeman seems like a nice guy, but I hate to see how he squandered his talent and wasted our time, as a Bucs QB.

@Paul – that’s the way they want it to be. If a player is frugal with their money then they have more power. Look at Carson Palmer. He wanted out of Cincinnati and told them that he had well more than he needed to retire comfortably so they needed to either allow him to go or he walked. Imagine if other players were that smart with their money. As it stands, they spend all their money on nothing of value and are beholden to the teams so they can continue to live that lifestyle. They’ll take lesser contracts or go to teams they don’t want to play for because they need the money. It works for the agents and it works for the teams.

Now wait… All this going on with the soft spoken and mild mannered Mike Williams? Where’s this all been? Us, the Joe Smoes, the anonymous football fan, have been kept uninformed of this behavior until recently. And now that I have learned about this, I’m a little bit let down. We the Joe Smoes, the fans, form opinions based on a players talents and behavior on and off the field. Of course Mike had many red flags coming out of college, but in that regard, I was led to believe that Mike had turned the corner.

Now, seeing how those red flags continue to follow so many current players into their professional lives, is it really hard to fathom Johnny Manziel not continuing on his party ways. Is this what we have to accept because so many are enamored by his talent? Are we willing to ignore his college behavior or is it a red flag? Whats to keep JF from acting the same way in the pros, even more so now after the money. Kind of funny, we public scorned and virtually condemned Josh Freeman for allegedly doing the same thing

Normally I’d say as long as it is not affecting his play on the field, who gives a damn? But his stat line for the Dallas game: 2 rec, 33 yds. And i remember this game. This was where Clayborn went down with the ACL and Free was playing as if he were working off his own alcohol withdrawals.

@Eric –
Dude, you cant be serious, are you just trying to get attention?

You cannot tell me you don’t see a problem with this report he is getting killed on the field, dropping balls, and not getting open? Not to mention, the Bucs were in a tailspin – you response is this?

No wonder we were losing. Football teams don’t just win championships, it’s the front office and the entire organization that win. I will take it a step further. I do not want or think everyone should be choir boys but don’t be stupid either.

Let’s not forget that we just placed to HOF’s in the football heaven and one of the two was no angel but this foolishness publicly was a non-issue.

He is not all that good to be that patient with and he is a dime a dozen player – as far as judging him; I don’t care about him personally and he’s never inspired me to buy a jersey so You are right on that – WHO CARES…

If he is cut tomorrow or today – I could careless and matters to me known.

If you are going to take others to task, at least know fundamental history. Germans never invaded Pearl Harbor. It was the Japanese who bombed Perl Harbor. The Germans never never even set foot on US soil.

We as fans have the right to care about any and everything that we think will affect the play on the field. We pay lots of money on tickets, food and gear related to the Bucs. I’m not saying we should be in their personal lives but if it affects on field play then it matters.

The funny part is I hear cut and trade. Who will trade for him? The best we can get for a player coming from an injury who had an bad season would be a 7th. Plus no team will take his contract on top of that. Cutting him I pretty sure he will has some guaranteed money left which we will still have to pay so that would be dead cap space. You can’t void a contract unless there is a clause in it, which more often are drug related like Eric Wright.

Honestly I am not stressing what he did last year. I want to see what he does this year. He got a little extra money and went crazy, and now he has a (real) head coach who will set him straight or ship him out.

Kind of crazy that all this was happening and now we are hearing about it.

@Luther – I think the Germans comment was shtick. My wife and I went to a Bucs/Saints game back in 09 and there was a guy sitting a couple rows ahead of us that was saying the exact same quote. Either it was Eric himself or it’s a “thing” that people like to say to get a reaction. My wife still likes to talk about the yahoos that we were sitting around that game. Apart from that comment there were quite a few things being said around us that were just baffling

I dont care if players smoke medicinal herb in their downtime, like the Seahawks or Ricky Williams.

I agree with Coach Carroll.

Legalize it!

Vote YES in November FLORIDA!!
++++++++++++++++++

Spoken like a true pot head. Yes, alcohol can ruin a body, but so too can weed. Anytime a person changed the chemical make-up of a substance (aka lighting it on fire) and then ingests it, there can’t be ANY good effects. Besides the well-known lethargy, depression, and like any habit, using it as their crutch, marijuana has plenty of terrible effects on people.